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An increased police presence at Granbury High School Monday is a direct response to a reported threat made Friday against the school. (Published Monday, Dec. 17, 2012)

The parking lot at Granbury High School is a packed place on any Monday morning.

Parking was even more difficult to find this Monday, what with no fewer than four Granbury police vehicles on the school campus.

The police presence at Granbury High School is a direct response to a reported threat made Friday against the school, according to Dr. James Largent, Granbury Independent School District Superintendent.

The origin of the threat was a conversation between students in school on Friday that was later reported to school authorities, according to Largent. Fueling the fear in response to the reported threat at Granbury High School was what happened that same morning in Connecticut, where a lone gunman opened fire inside of Sandy Hook Elementary School, killing 26 people, including 20 children, before turning the gun on himself.

Although a police investigation is ongoing, at this point Largent told NBC 5 he does not believe there was a criminal intent or an actual intent to act on the threat by the student or students involved in that converstation.

"I say it's akin to yelling fire in a theater or going through TSA security at an airport and making a comment that, 'Hey, I've got a bomb in my suitcase.'" Largent said Monday. "Even though none of that may be true, and even though you may be joking, it's not funny. There's nothing funny about it. And we take those things very seriously."

Some parents of Granbury High School students have openly voiced their concern over the reported threat.

Lauri Baker, who said she has a daughter in 10th grade at Granbury High School, told NBC 5 she dropped her daughter off Monday only to return a short while later with second thoughts.

"I drove home, pulled in the driveway and thought if somebody told me I was getting ready to get on an airplane that had a threat on it, there's no way I would get on it," Baker said. "And I feel like I've just put [my daughter] on the front line."

Teachers at the high school have been instructed to have a conversation with students about the seriousness of their words, and about the importance of reporting anything suspicious, according to Largent. And the superintendent said he encourages parents to have that same conversation with their children.

Rumors of the reported threat have spread quickly and have become distorted through social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, Largent said, before adding that much of what is being passed along by members of the community is completely false.